similarities between intelligence and creativity

Feb 24 2012:
Creativity involves initiating unique associations between what you know and what you're experiencing (internal and/or external stimuli) at a given instant. This involves the brain's capacity to successfully establish new attribute connections between fact clusters that have had nothing to do with each other, and the mind's willingness to take the chance that such an association will be productive. It's no wonder that aged brains have more trouble doing this, since the established attribute connections become very established after years of being the go-to response for a given brain.

As a blues guitarist, I used to shake up my improvisational predilections by pausing a second or so before launching a riff passage that I might've depended on a bit too much, and that 1 second shift in contextual juxtaposition (relative to the backing progression being played by the band) would always initiate a new way of approaching the rest of the solo. Just forcing a new link within my brain while on the fly within a performance.

Concerning how creativity relates to intelligence, if you aren't bright enough to even imagine something like that small rhythm shift (described above) as an option, creativity will always elude you. The truth is that intelligent people do a lot of thinking. It's a default response to having a hyper intellect and the more a person thinks the more efficient and effective the process becomes. I would imagine that if a blazing intellect is freed to initiate new data attribute associations, by desire or by inspiration, then that intellect could be very creative. Maybe not artistic or musical, but creative nonetheless. In fact, Engineers (who are thinkers by profession) are generally extremely creative people. Maybe they can't sing or dance or play an instrument, or even draw a straight line, but creativity isn't about creative talent. It's about launching new pathways regardless of where those pathways lead.

Feb 23 2012:
There are links between intelligence and creativity but probably the only thing that is a truly similar aspect of both is the fact that they both can be used for either theorizing, discovering or disproving something.

We seem to measure intelligence in terms of a capacity to gather information. Being well read and knowing lots of facts is seen as intelligence. The methods we use to measure it is with IQ tests and exams. IQ tests measure little more than an ability to do IQ tests. Exams measure mostly memory.

Without creativity, memorized facts are static. Memorized facts in isolation use the past only to inform us as far as the present - no further. Creativity is what mobilizes those facts into the future, and takes us into pioneering territory.

Creativity takes us to where we are capable of going, not just where we have already been.

Feb 25 2012:
Kevin already gave part of the answer.
It is natural to be more creative with an increase of intelligence. You can see it in the animal kingdom. With more intelligence the animal is less bound to fixed patterns of behavior.
Intelligence allows to combine and rearrange lots of input within short time to see new pathways and patterns. It is difficult to create anything new and it only is possible by translating intuitive impressions into a clear message that can be understood by the mind.
If you think like Roy H that creativity is the ability to express yourself than the story is different and creativity would be the same for everyone limited only by fear to do so or apathy. And indeed if one is active to express all that’s living inside into any material creation the activity by itself develops the intelligence of that person.

Feb 25 2012:
I'm so happy with your answer, somewhere in my thoughts i knew there was something that would make intelligence equals creativity and is also the main reason why i asked this question in Ted. Thank you so much Frans !

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